Bitcoin trades higher, but struggles to regain $4,000

Cryptocurrency prices traded mostly higher Tuesday, looking to claw back some of the ground lost on Monday.

After falling as much as 8% on Monday, bitcoin,
BTCUSD, +4.53%
the best-known cryptocurrency, was last changing hands at $3,930.23, up 1% since Monday’s level at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange.

Bitcoin mining gets cheaper

With bitcoin and major cryptocurrency prices well off their all-time highs, there has been debate about the profitability of bitcoin miners. According to Sam Doctor, head of data science at Fundstrat Global Advisors, miners are getting some reprieve as prices decline.

“Our model suggests the cash cost of mining each BTC on the Antminer S9 is now $4500, down from $5300 in September,” he wrote. The Antminer S9 refers to specialized computer hardware used to mine for bitcoins and other digital assets.

“Depreciation expense has fallen to $1300 vs. $2000 in September, reflecting a lower rig cost as newer devices have come to market. Fully loaded breakeven is now $5700, compared with a breakeven of $7300 in September.”

Bitcoin Cash struggles, other altcoins jump

Altcoins—the collection of more than 2,000 coins other than bitcoin—are mostly higher on Tuesday. Ether
ETHUSD, +6.97%
is trading up 0.4% at $108.85, Litecoin
LTCUSD, +4.35%
has gained 1.5% to $31.40, XRP,
XRPUSD, +8.44%
the cryptocurrency that runs on the Ripple protocol, was trading at 35 cents, up 0.5% and bucking the trend was Bitcoin Cash
BCHUSD, +13.10%
that is down 6.1% at $148.30.

Bitcoin futures ended Tuesday in the green. The Cboe Global Markets December contract
XBTZ8, +4.76%
finished up 0.9% to $3,837.50 while the CME Group December contract
BTCZ8, +5.29%
closed the session up 1.3% to $3,840.

The total value of all cryptocurrencies was last at $128.3 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use. Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. All quotes are in local exchange time. Real-time last sale data for U.S. stock quotes reflect trades reported through Nasdaq only. Intraday data delayed at least 15 minutes or per exchange requirements.